Decimation Day?
March 2025
Will March 4th become known as ‘decimation day’ for recruitment agencies?
The government’s decision to include agency temps in its ban on zero hours contract is a major blow to recruitment agencies.
Some industry spokespeople have already stated it will place ‘untenable burdens’ on agencies and will be 'unworkable'. Others highlight that the bill fails to differentiate between high-skilled contractors and traditional temps, stifling workforce mobility.
AGENCIES ON THE HOOK
The proposals will place the onus on agencies to guarantee workers a minimum number of hours a week, and hands them the liability to compensate the workers if shifts are cancelled or moved at short notice.
Yet, they are not the end employer who controls the shift patterns. For example, an agency supplying temp teachers don’t know when a school will need them; or when a hospital or social care organisation will need extra support.
SHARP END
This is the sharp end of the 250 amendments to the Employment Rights Bill that’s going through Parliament today.
Industry bodies, like APSCo, of which I’m a trusted advisor, have been arguing consistently for agency workers to be excluded from these new rules, as have people at the Recruitment & Employment Confederation amongst others.
ROBUST RESPONSE
I’m pleased that APSCO’s statement from Tania Bowers is robust: “ The extension of the zero-hours legislation across the whole temporary workforce is over regulation, primarily to close off loopholes that could be exploited rather than the actual risk of exploitation in the professional sector.
“A catch-all method to employment regulation doesn’t set the UK up for success in terms of skills growth and is an unfair approach for the recruitment supply chain. The agency worker sector is already well-regulated and will be in an even better position with the introduction of the #FairWorkAgency in the legislation.”
Of course, as Neil Carberry reminds us, these amendments are not yet law and can still be adjusted. But the direction of travel is far from encouraging.
DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS
My concern is that the government is going to inflict death by a thousand cuts to the recruitment sector and to millions of small businesses in the UK by the cumulative effects of its regulatory zeal and its imposition of higher employment costs - e.g increased #employersNI contributions and lowering the thresholds where they kick in.
The Chancellor will deliver her #SpringBudget in three weeks and there are already fears she’s going to announce more taxes.
Let’s hope Decimation Day does not become a date in the history books that sparks off a major assault on the UK’s flexible labour laws that have done so much to drive growth in recent decades.